The club welcomes all chess players who have a valid email address and who agree to follow the club's Regulations.

Please check the Is it for me? page before registering to see if this type of chess is right for you or not.

Membership and all activity in the club are free and also free from any advertising and business dealings.

Becoming a member is easy. You register by sending an email message to the chess server.

Registration - The Easiest Way

The following form will compose your registration email in the correct format. Enter your desired nickname and your rating (if you know it). When you click on the Send button, your mailer will open a new message with the required information already entered. Then you can simply send the new email without further modifications.

If your normal email program doesn't open with the registration command already entered then it means that javascript has been turned off in your web browser preferences. Use the instructions below to complete the registration email - or turn on javascript in your browser's preferences and try the form again!

Registration - The Easy Way

Address an email message to chess@e4ec.org.
The subject is not important and can be left blank, but the body of the email must contain a command in the following format...

Register nickname rating

Replace nickname with your chosen nickname.
Replace rating with your known rating and this will be used as your initial rating in the club. Please give only a known, valid rating.
This must be an integer value between 800 and 2600. If you omit it, the default 1200 value will be used. An ELO rating of 1200 is an average strength.

Here are two examples:

Register Bob

Register Superman 1722

The chess server answers every email. If the chosen nickname is not being used and it conforms to the rules on the right nav pane, the chess server sends a confirmation code that must be sent back to complete the registration process. From that point you become a registered player and you can use all the services of the club.

Later, if you no longer want to be a member of the club, you can remove yourself by a simple command.

Choosing Your Nickname

Before registering, choose a nickname that will identify you in the club. The nickname should be unique and you will have to choose another one if that nickname is already being used. Your chosen nickname must conform to the following rules:

Its length must be between 2 and 10 characters.

The first letter must be an unaccented upper- or lowercase letter.

It should only contain unaccented upper- or lowercase letters, numbers or special characters, such as: _ - . ! ( ) $.

After you have registered you will be able to set up your real name (if you want to), so choose a nickname that can appear next to your real name and will not embarrass you.

Please do not choose an abusive, offensive nickname, rather a neutral one, so we can concentrate on the game.

Your Rating

If you have played some competitive chess before then you may already have an ELO rating. This might be a rating given by your national chess association (for over-the-board chess), by a correspondence chess association, or by the IECG or IECC (for email chess). Whatever the source of your rating, please use it to establish your initial rating in E4EC.

Elo rating values are usually between 600 and 2900 points:

Weaker players, children have a rating usually under 1000 points.

Average players have 1200-1400 points.

Strong players are usually between 1400 and 2000 points.

Really strong players are over 2000.

And the world champion is over 2800 elo points.

If you don't have a rating then do not enter anything in the rating field of the form, or omit it when composing the registration email yourself. In this case your initial rating will be 1200 elo points which will change after each finished games until it reaches your real playing strength. If you give a rating it will change more slowly.

Cambro wrote this notice on Oct 12, 2008:

I'm looking forward to the coming of the Spanish translation!!! :)
This is a very useful website